Buddhism is a thought to be one of the most peaceful religions in existence. As westerners we relate buddhism with vegans and progressive views but buddhism isn’t souly about peace. Buddhism is about giving up selfish behavior and understanding the sources of sorrow and how to vanquish it. Wicca is the belief that nature has powers, ancient powers to be used regardless for intentions. This belief strongly revolves around the idea that the women with their ability to bring life into this world were the true bearer of these powers. Around the late dark ages wicca was considered by the christian church as satanism and their most infamous symbol, the pentagram was interpreted as the symbol of satan. In response they hid for centuries but managed to keep their faith alive. Buddhism has also suffered attacks on its beliefs throughout their existence, in persia by the sunga empire the buddhist were persecuted by the the zoroastrianism, they would set fire to their buildings of worship and in response they erected two large statues of their current buddha Much like wicca, buddhism is broken up into sections; unlike wicca the different practices of buddhism is separated by regions. In short they both are both incredible belief systems that have survived through years of adversity. Wicca: The Wiccan belief is strongly routed in nature, nature is powerful and beautiful and loving. Wicca is a poly-theist religion with multiple branches, varying in number depending on who you ask and what their perspective is. In these separate branches the beliefs and ritual practices range from close simularities to vast differences.
Buddhism: Buddhism is a relgion more deeply based in philosophy then ritual. The philosophies of buddishm can be summed up into three points, lead a moral life, be aware of thoughts and/or actions, and develop wisdom and understanding for all living things. These philosophies varie through out the branches of buddhism in intesity and in meaning. In some forms these philosophy means live a life of slitude and meditation, to some it means to be understanding that all life is none the less life regardless of its position. Question: What has made These two religions so infamous in our modern world? Quotes:
“feminism and environmentalism, have been converging to the degree that a common discipline, ecofeminism, has been born. Although some affinities exist between these two and the others” -Salamantist
the most feminist stance of wicca comes from the dianic wicca or feminist witchcraft. Given the relatively recent social uprising a newer connection to the powers of women and the powers of nature has been made, the wicca religion never specifically mentions ecofeminism but it is clear underlying theme; from the countless amounts of goddesses to the phenomenal use of nature in their incantations which could be considered to be a form of prayer, it is clear that ecofeminism is a one of the bigger ideas of wicca that has managed to find its way out to a socio-political plane. Dianic witchcraft is one of the older forms of wicca of which their are countless, which provides assistance to the point that these ideals have been alive in the wicca culture for many centuries. These views which can be view as progressive even by todays standards are part of the reason why the wiccan religion was so heavily condemned from the “witch burning times” to the late victorian era. It was so heavily feared for it fought the male patriarchy of the christian church and endorsed a life in tune with nature. To combat these ideas the christian church painted the followers of wicca as unsightly, man hating, soul selling, beasts, but as of late the wiccan religion has made abounding come back, protected by freedom of religion in most countries.
“ O woman well set free! how free am I, How thoroughly free from kitchen drudgery! Me stained and squalid 'mong my cooking-pots My brutal husband ranked as even less Than the sunshades he sits and weaves alway. Purged now of all my former lust and hate, I dwell, musing at ease beneath the shade Of spreading boughs–O, but 'tis well with me!” - Psakms of the sisters
This poem was written in 1909 with the intention of conveying the hardships of women in a time where women were under the thumb of a seemingly universal male patriarchy. In the entirety of the buddhist religion there is one female buddha, this is actually quite impressive given that a larger majority of mainstream religion has close to no female profits. Although this buddha belongs to the Vajrayana strand of buddhism and this paper doesn’t mention the type of buddhism that these poems are inspired by, the connection can be made that Tara “the mother of liberty” was a strong influence on these writings. Tara is an deity of gender equality in the male dominated world of religion and was and still is the source of strength more many female buddhist philosophers. The poem refers to a kitchen in which she slaves away; in a modern experience the kitchen is very close to the epicenter of sexism. The idea of gender equality was an unpopular idea for religions to include but because of this buddhism has managed to survive into this day and age.
"We are not on this planet to ask forgiveness of our deities" -Scott Cunningham
Another reason Wicca has managed to thrive in our modern society is the fact that the morals encoded are applicable to life in a modern society. The quote opens up conversation about the depths of devotion and how they don't need to be so deep to still be a practitioner of Wicca, in other words the idea of the Wiccan religion isn't to let it consume all time and thought but ratof her to let it help guide you without letting it monopolize all of your time. Time management is a major part of the modern world so its clear as to why this would be appealing aspect of the wiccan faith. This quote also reflects on the ritual aspects of the wiccan religion in faith. Wicca is a polytheist religion where the majority of deities are females, unlike most polytheist religions punishment and sacrifices aren't the pinicle of worship but rather seeking understanding and offering good to this world. A strong wiccan belief is that once you accept wicca into your life and claim yourself a practicer of wicca great amounts of power will follow you, the point of these deities isn't to seek forgiveness from but rather to teach morals as to insure that power is always in the "right" hands. That is one of the many beauties of wicca.
"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."-thich Nhat Hanh Hope is an essential part of being a human, in a modern world its essential for us to have hope, this is the pinacule of all religion. Buddhism places sorrow as its evil, much like the christian church places the devil as its evil. Hope is able to relinquish sorrow, it allows for people to advance past the darkness which more times then not seems inevidable. That's the part of what makes buddhism appealing to a human of the modern world, but thats not just specific to buddhism. What makes buddhism special is that the entire theme of buddhism is to transcend earthly desire without losing roots in this life. Thus we are given insight into both the heavens and this earth, this is why buddhism is so attractive to modern day philsophers. Final thoughts: In conclusion, religion requires a certain resilants and something special to survive our modern world, whether that something special is embracing anti-theism or creating magic where there once was none. Wicca and Buddhism have fared well against years of hardships and oppression, and in some cases they have risen above their opressers which have faded out from existance. Both of these religions have a certain beauty to them that draw peoplein, they just connect with people on a basic level, philisophically they are deeply routed in equality which is one of the morals we appear to be born with, that everyone is equal. Religion can be seen as a spectrum but we often fail to see the similarties that so many beliefs have incommen.
Buddhism is a thought to be one of the most peaceful religions in existence. As westerners we relate buddhism with vegans and progressive views but buddhism isn’t souly about peace. Buddhism is about giving up selfish behavior and understanding the sources of sorrow and how to vanquish it. Wicca is the belief that nature has powers, ancient powers to be used regardless for intentions. This belief strongly revolves around the idea that the women with their ability to bring life into this world were the true bearer of these powers. Around the late dark ages wicca was considered by the christian church as satanism and their most infamous symbol, the pentagram was interpreted as the symbol of satan. In response they hid for centuries but managed to keep their faith alive. Buddhism has also suffered attacks on its beliefs throughout their existence, in persia by the sunga empire the buddhist were persecuted by the the zoroastrianism, they would set fire to their buildings of worship and in response they erected two large statues of their current buddha Much like wicca, buddhism is broken up into sections; unlike wicca the different practices of buddhism is separated by regions. In short they both are both incredible belief systems that have survived through years of adversity.
Wicca:
The Wiccan belief is strongly routed in nature, nature is powerful and beautiful and loving. Wicca is a poly-theist religion with multiple branches, varying in number depending on who you ask and what their perspective is. In these separate branches the beliefs and ritual practices range from close simularities to vast differences.
Buddhism:
Buddhism is a relgion more deeply based in philosophy then ritual. The philosophies of buddishm can be summed up into three points, lead a moral life, be aware of thoughts and/or actions, and develop wisdom and understanding for all living things. These philosophies varie through out the branches of buddhism in intesity and in meaning. In some forms these philosophy means live a life of slitude and meditation, to some it means to be understanding that all life is none the less life regardless of its position.
Question: What has made These two religions so infamous in our modern world?
Quotes:
“feminism and environmentalism, have been converging to the degree that a common discipline, ecofeminism, has been born. Although some affinities exist between these two and the others”
-Salamantist
the most feminist stance of wicca comes from the dianic wicca or feminist witchcraft. Given the relatively recent social uprising a newer connection to the powers of women and the powers of nature has been made, the wicca religion never specifically mentions ecofeminism but it is clear underlying theme; from the countless amounts of goddesses to the phenomenal use of nature in their incantations which could be considered to be a form of prayer, it is clear that ecofeminism is a one of the bigger ideas of wicca that has managed to find its way out to a socio-political plane. Dianic witchcraft is one of the older forms of wicca of which their are countless, which provides assistance to the point that these ideals have been alive in the wicca culture for many centuries. These views which can be view as progressive even by todays standards are part of the reason why the wiccan religion was so heavily condemned from the “witch burning times” to the late victorian era. It was so heavily feared for it fought the male patriarchy of the christian church and endorsed a life in tune with nature. To combat these ideas the christian church painted the followers of wicca as unsightly, man hating, soul selling, beasts, but as of late the wiccan religion has made abounding come back, protected by freedom of religion in most countries.
“ O woman well set free! how free am I,
How thoroughly free from kitchen drudgery!
Me stained and squalid 'mong my cooking-pots
My brutal husband ranked as even less
Than the sunshades he sits and weaves alway.
Purged now of all my former lust and hate,
I dwell, musing at ease beneath the shade
Of spreading boughs–O, but 'tis well with me!”
- Psakms of the sisters
This poem was written in 1909 with the intention of conveying the hardships of women in a time where women were under the thumb of a seemingly universal male patriarchy. In the entirety of the buddhist religion there is one female buddha, this is actually quite impressive given that a larger majority of mainstream religion has close to no female profits. Although this buddha belongs to the Vajrayana strand of buddhism and this paper doesn’t mention the type of buddhism that these poems are inspired by, the connection can be made that Tara “the mother of liberty” was a strong influence on these writings. Tara is an deity of gender equality in the male dominated world of religion and was and still is the source of strength more many female buddhist philosophers. The poem refers to a kitchen in which she slaves away; in a modern experience the kitchen is very close to the epicenter of sexism. The idea of gender equality was an unpopular idea for religions to include but because of this buddhism has managed to survive into this day and age.
"We are not on this planet to ask forgiveness of our deities"
-Scott Cunningham
Another reason Wicca has managed to thrive in our modern society is the fact that the morals encoded are applicable to life in a modern society. The quote opens up conversation about the depths of devotion and how they don't need to be so deep to still be a practitioner of Wicca, in other words the idea of the Wiccan religion isn't to let it consume all time and thought but ratof her to let it help guide you without letting it monopolize all of your time. Time management is a major part of the modern world so its clear as to why this would be appealing aspect of the wiccan faith. This quote also reflects on the ritual aspects of the wiccan religion in faith. Wicca is a polytheist religion where the majority of deities are females, unlike most polytheist religions punishment and sacrifices aren't the pinicle of worship but rather seeking understanding and offering good to this world. A strong wiccan belief is that once you accept wicca into your life and claim yourself a practicer of wicca great amounts of power will follow you, the point of these deities isn't to seek forgiveness from but rather to teach morals as to insure that power is always in the "right" hands. That is one of the many beauties of wicca.
"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."-thich Nhat Hanh
Hope is an essential part of being a human, in a modern world its essential for us to have hope, this is the pinacule of all religion. Buddhism places sorrow as its evil, much like the christian church places the devil as its evil. Hope is able to relinquish sorrow, it allows for people to advance past the darkness which more times then not seems inevidable. That's the part of what makes buddhism appealing to a human of the modern world, but thats not just specific to buddhism. What makes buddhism special is that the entire theme of buddhism is to transcend earthly desire without losing roots in this life. Thus we are given insight into both the heavens and this earth, this is why buddhism is so attractive to modern day philsophers.
Final thoughts:
In conclusion, religion requires a certain resilants and something special to survive our modern world, whether that something special is embracing anti-theism or creating magic where there once was none. Wicca and Buddhism have fared well against years of hardships and oppression, and in some cases they have risen above their opressers which have faded out from existance. Both of these religions have a certain beauty to them that draw peoplein, they just connect with people on a basic level, philisophically they are deeply routed in equality which is one of the morals we appear to be born with, that everyone is equal. Religion can be seen as a spectrum but we often fail to see the similarties that so many beliefs have incommen.
sources:
pictures:
http://tattoopicturesonline.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/wiccan-tattoo-designs/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Buddhism)#mediaviewer/File:Green_Tara,_Kumbm,_Gyantse,_Tibet,_1993.JPG
http://www.redbubble.com/people/rticknor/works/7166302-buddha-on-white-background
http://kittythedreamer.hubpages.com/hub/Wiccan-Gods-and-Goddesses
Wicca :
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/msg0010.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/507043-we-are-not-on-this-planet-to-ask-forgiveness-of
Buddhism:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/pos/pos07.htm